We often report of stories of company or school data breaches, however, we are now compelled to alert our readers of an even worse threat, their family or friends. Many do not realize how well they know the criminal that they are seeking to protect themselves from. All the more reason to have identity theft protection in place, so that you will be notified is someone is trying to open a new account in your name. This happens more often than you may realize and we have found certain “categories” of people who seem to fit the mold. This is not all inclusive, of course, but it can help you to be more aware of what you leave accessible in your home or on your person.

Some identity thieves have been found to be are alcoholics, drug abusers and/or gamblers. They need a way to continue their habit and because of the nature of what they do, they could usually care less about who they hurt, just as long as they can get hold of some money. This means stealing cash, credit cards OR information that allows them to get new credit cards, at the expense of someone else.

Friends or family members who tend to “nose” through your personal business or those who tend to let impulse get the best of them can be dangerous too. Sometimes these types might hide their motives and use their relationship with you as access to information that they should not have, often times without your knowledge. They feel that you trust them and quite frankly, you probably do. This is just to make you aware of being cautious with situations out of the ordinary.

Also, be careful if you are in a situation where you have just broken off a close relationship with someone who might have been very possessive. This can lead to identity theft that can make life extremely difficult for you. Ex-spouses or boyfriends/girlfriends are sometimes fueled with anger and retaliate in many different ways.

So, now that you realize you might know someone in one of these categories, how do you protect yourself from these people? Our next blog post will offer some tips on how to protect yourself.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 14th, 2009 at 11:37 am and is filed under Articles Concerning Identity Theft. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.